Hi all,Being interested in Financial markets & mathematics,I was lookingfor a quant role in a ibank.Recently i have got an offer to work as an option market maker/trader with a US based prop trading firm.I wanted to know , how the 2 jobs compare:Trader derivatives ( prop trading firm or ibank ) Vs Quantitative analyst (ibank)- work- career profile- money- ease of switching (from trading to quant and vice versa)It will be great help if some senior members give their valuablecomments.cheers neo

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hi, i think the answer depends on what you want to do,what kind of life style suit you..etcmost important your personality.

trader works on the hunches and Quant on calculated hunches.

- work: trader starts earlier in the day, leaves earlier in the day. Both work 10+ hours a day, probably more for the quant.- career profile: trader can generally only move into better trading jobs or, when they get too old to trade, move into sales or management. Quant definitely has more options (ah, a pun!) such as risk management, audit, but most other work is much lower paid.- money: trader is paid more, usually much more.- ease of switching (from trading to quant and vice versa): not many people move from trading to quant, whereas most quants want to become traders.